vaultofthearchonfandomcom-20200214-history
118693-can-we-buy-more-character-slots-per-server-please
Content ---- ---- You had the opportunity to use all 48 character slots on every PVE server and bring them over to the megaserver. Granted, you can't make any more until you delete them down to 11, but how many MMOs do you know where you can have 48 characters on one server? How many characters did you have before megaservers, anyway? That being said, I'm all for paid character slots beyond 12, and additional character slots when new classes become available. But you know that people who have more than 12 characters are just going to claim that if there are additional character slots added for new classes, they should get those slots for free on top of the ones they've already used. | |} ---- And this is exactly why that wasn't an option. New race? New class? New race/class combos? Completely inaccessible if you maxed out character slots that way before the merger. Clearly they had the database space. I don't get why they couldn't just let us keep the same number of potential characters as we once had. | |} ---- ---- ---- If they ever add new race or class combinations, I also hope they add a few slots for free on top of whatever number the player has. For the record, I have like...19 characters, I believe. I should count them again. Most are at 15 or in the process of getting to 15. Champions Online allowed for a maximum of "we don't care how many you have, just have them!" and granted you a new slot every time a character reached max level. It also had a cash shop, though, so it let you buy more character slots without having to level up anything if you really wanted. I'm sad I didn't think things through and filled those 48 character slots before the megaservers with dummy characters. Mostly for use on roleplaying. Some of the plots I've been making could suddenly use a number of mooks and half-persistent characters that now I can't have. I blame my lack of foresight. With that said, since Carbine didn't say "Sorry, we are going to delete any character you have above X number" at any point, we have to conclude they had the space. Though it's true that they ARE worried with data space. See the old decor limit, the limit on how many mannequins you can have and the changes to the costume system back in Beta... | |} ---- Well, we were told that we couldn't make new characters if we had more than 12 on the megaserver. Many of us pointed out the drawback of not being able to create more characters in the future if you decide to have more than 12 characters now. That's the tradeoff for the benefit of having more than 12 characters. I'm OK for making character slots available in the store (maybe $5 per slot) but I still think someone with more than 12 characters should have to buy the extra slots they're using before getting any more. If they add slots because of new classes etc, then they would simply have to buy fewer slots before they had slots free. They also culled a few hundred thousand unused characters. We have no idea how much space their database has. | |} ---- To free up names. However, it's rather strange to suggest that Carbine mysteriously did not have the database capacity to hold onto all of the characters they gave people slots for. I also don't like the idea of Carbine asking me to pay extra for something I once had and that they then took away. | |} ---- What names did they have to free up? Nobody could use one-word names and every single character was flagged for rename. You had the opportunity to fill all the available character slots before megaservers were implemented. And they doubled the number of character slots available on a single server as it is. How many characters did you create and play before megaservers were announced? I get that to you, having 40+ character slots means you can role play all the minor characters related to a character (the servant that a message is passed to, a jilted lover, etc) and delete and recreate characters as needed to keep the narrative flowing, but that's something that MMORPGs aren't designed to handle. To the designers, allowing 40+ character slots means additional bag/bank storage (which certainly takes up a lot of space) and a potential for serious abuse of the game economy. | |} ---- ---- I'm gonna call BS on this. 40+ characters did not suddenly become database and game breaking between release day and megaservers. Especially since they didn't delete everyone's characters beyond #12. | |} ---- You can call it what you want, but they didn't delete a few hundred thousand characters because of names. And nobody had 40+ characters on one server on launch day. Also, SWTOR has a cap of 22 characters because allowing more would impact performance, so it's reasonable to assume WildStar would be similarly affected if the number of character slots was greatly increased. | |} ---- ---- How could someone have more than 100 characters to transfer to a megaserver? The pre-megaserver limit was 6 per server, and there weren't enough servers to allow someone to create 100+ characters that would transfer to one megaserver. | |} ---- ---- And few people now would max that out, too. The point remains the same. They had the space to provide it pre-megaserver. They have the space to provide it now. | |} ---- As a counterpoint, Champions Online didn't have a hard limit on character slots as far as I remember. So if SWTOR having a cap "because of performance" makes it reasonable for Wildstar to have one, then the fact that Champions Online did not have a cap makes it reasonable for Wildstar to not have one, either. Selective analogies, ahoy! This is all meaningless, of course. We don't know how Wildstar's architecture works or how it compares to CO's or SWTOR's. Our only choice is to trust that Carbine isn't lying to save money. Or...well...to not trust them. That's always the other option. | |} ---- ---- ---- I feel like this is entirely possible. xD It really just doesn't make any sense otherwise. Unless... I guess maybe they were trying to cut down on the time it would have taken to transfer all the character data to the megaservers? But that wouldn't really have anything to do with there being actual space or not... (Note: I have less than zero idea as to how that whole thing works.) | |} ---- I linked to that SWTOR post because it was the first time I saw a dev actually explain that allowing more characters could potentially affect performance (other than that, every other post or comment I could find was just people like us debating about it). Champions Online not having a cap doesn't tell us whether it potentially affects performance or takes up server space or not, just that they don't have a cap. | |} ---- Oh, I can answer that one. There is a world of difference between setting up your file structure to support addressing for 100 character folders per account and physically connecting enough drive space to the servers to support every one of those addresses being filled. The point was to reave out all the 'played for ten minutes' alts on dead/inactive accounts to reduce the amount of real drive space required to host the full character database. They add drive capacity as needed for live accounts, but there was a lot of noise left over that didn't need to be hogging hot storage. | |} ---- I would assume that if it would take extra time to move the data, it would take extra space to store it. ;) But I really don't know either. It would be nice to have a dev explain. I was searching for an explanation from a dev in any MMO, and all I could find was that SWTOR quote. Everything else I could find was just players debating the issue. :D | |} ---- You can interpret the facts, though. If a game doesn't have a character cap, you can assume fairly safely that the space/performance hit is either not a worry for them or non-existant. As I said before, different games with different programming architectures will have different worries. It's all moot, though, because I looked it up and CO actually has a 60 character slot limit. So there's that. No explanation for it at all. It's as arbitrary as SWTOR's "22" or WS' "12".It's clear different developers have different worries about space and performance (though I have no idea how characters can affect performance in any way). In any case, this isn't the first time Carbine has slapped low numbers on certain aspects of the game for the sake of space or performance. See the limit on housing's mannequins and the old exterior decor limit, for example. | |} ---- ---- Yeap. Spellslinger is up and shooting! Now, where is that Esper? Not to mention that I am thinking for a 3rd Warrior ;) I :wub: WildStar I'm telling you! ;) | |} ----